Due to the failure of the day campaign during what has become known as the Battle of Britain, on September 7, 1940, the Luftwaffe commenced bombing London and major cities, predominantly by night. What became known as the Blitz continued until May 10 1941, with many towns and cities across the country being attacked and London being struck 57 nights in succession. By the end of May 1941, more than 43,000 civilians, half of them in London, had been killed by bombing and more than a million houses destroyed or damaged in London alone. The Blitz failed to break the morale of the British people and any thoughts of a German invasion were cancelled with German attention quickly being transferred to the Soviet Union. Accordingly, the intensity of the attacks against mainland Britain lessened considerably.